The first real endurance test of our reformed CS:GO squad stands right before us. Jake 'Stewie2k' Yip and his counterparts will perform at their first offline event in France at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018. After solid online performances from April 5 to April 13 in ESL Pro League Season 7 and ECS Season 5 in which they went 9-3, the American and his Brazilian teammates will have to prevail offline against top competition and prove that the good online outcomes were only the beginning.

Heading to France pic.twitter.com/PQN64ZgkTv

— Fernando Alvarenga (@fer) 15. April 2018

The event offers a $250,000 prize pool and the sixteen participating teams are going to be split into four groups that will consist of four squads each. The rosters that advance out of these groups are going to compete inside of the Dôme de Marseille in the playoffs of the tournament. Our CS:GO division will compete in group B where they have to face Ninjas in Pyjamas , Valiance and our friends from mousesports . NIP and mousesports especially are opponents against whom we have struggled in the past and it will be exciting to watch how the changes within the roster are going to affect the approach of our players against these tough oppositions.

Down below we provide you with all the necessary information about the competition.

Group A:

Cloud 9 (Rush, Tarik, autimatic, FNS, Skadoodle)
Team EnVy (Happy, RpK, Scream, hAdji, kioShiMa)
FaZe (Karrigan, Rain, NiKo, Guardian, Xizt)
G2 Esports (kennyS, NBK, apEX, body, mixwell)

Group B:

SK Gaming (FalleN, coldzera, fer, boltz, stewie2k)
mousesports (ropz, oskar, chrisJ, sunny, STYKO)
Ninjas in Pyjamas (f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, dennis, draken, REZ)
Valiance (NENO, emi, hunter, LETN1, Impulse)

Group C:

Fnatic (Krimz, flusha, JW, Lekr0, Golden)
Natus Vincere (Edward, Zeus, flamie, s1mple, electronic)
Renegades (jks, AZR, jkaem, USTILO, Nifty)
TyLoo (Mo, DD, BnTeT, somebody, xccurate)

Group D:

Astralis Denmark (Xyp9x, dupreeh, gla1ve, device, Magisk)
Gambit Gaming (AdreN, Dosia, mou, seized, Hobbit)
Team Liquid (nitr0, NAF, EliGE, TACO, Twistzz)
Space Soldiers (MAJ3R, XANTARES, Calyx, paz, ngiN)

The stacked participating field should display great Counter Strike during the course of the event. There are several possible title contenders. Group A offers top competition and the prestigious derby between the two best rosters of France. Each of them will want to prove that they are the best while playing in their home country. Group B will be exciting to watch because of our newest addition of Jake 'Stewie2k' Yip and the steady improvement of mousesports. The same can be said about fnatic who compete in Group C and have found their old form recently. Group D features the two Major champions of 2017 and should also be a head-to-head race.

The broadcasting crew who is going to present the spectacle to you are none other than:

Broadcasters:

Alex "Machine" Richardson (Desk Host)

Tres "stunna" Saranthus (Reporter)

Janko "YNk" Paunović (Analyst)
Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill (Analyst)
Sean "seang@res" Gares (Analyst)

Anders Blume (Commentator)
Jason "moses" O'Toole (Commentator)
Henry "HenryG" Greer (Commentator)
Vince Hill (Commentator)

Hugo Byron (Secondary stream commentator)
Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam (Secondary stream commentator)

Our Brazilians will first face the Ninjas in Pyjamas against whom they have not played in nearly half a year. In the past, the matchups between these two legendary esports franchises have always been close contests so it should be a great start to the tournament. The complete schedule of the event looks as follows:

18 April, Wednesday:

12:00 CET - FaZe vs. EnVyUs
12:00 CET - mousesports vs. Valiance
13:30 CET - Cloud9 vs. G2
13:30 CET - SK Gaming vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
15:00 CET - fnatic vs. Tyloo
15:00 CET - Team Liquid vs. Gambit Gaming
16:30 CET - NaVi vs. Renegades
16:30 CET - Astralis vs. Space Soldiers
18:00 CET - Group A Elimination Match
18:00 CET - Group B Elimination Match
19:30 CET - Group C Elimination Match
19:30 CET - Group D Elimination Match

19 April, Thursday:

10:00 CET - Group A Winner`s Match
13:00 CET - Group B Winner`s Match
16:00 CET - Group C Winner`s Match
19:00 CET - Group D Winner`s Match

20 April, Friday:

10:00 CET - Group A Decider Match
13:00 CET - Group A Decider Match
16:00 CET - Group A Decider Match
19:00 CET - Group A Decider Match

21 April, Saturday:

10:00 CET - Quarter-Final 1
13:00 CET - Quarter-Final 2
16:00 CET - Quarter-Final 3
19:00 CET - Quarter-Final 4

22 April, Sunday:

11:00 CET - Semi-Final 1
14:00 CET - Semi-Final 2
18:00 CET - Grand-Final

The prize money will be split according to the following seats:

1st place - $100,000
2nd place - $50,000
3rd-4th place - $22,000
5th-8th place - $10,000
9th-16th place - $2,000

We will provide you with the stream and updates of the latest results in our coverage article. Stay tuned!